Impressions, Reflections and Experiences from my Year in Iraq

November 2008

November 17, 2008

There's something going around... and I caught it. It's Nov. 4th and I'm in the confined space of my living quarters with a sore throat and a cough. A cold can seem 10 times worse in Baghdad with all the dust and sounds of war, but it's not a big deal today. And although this tiny living space can make you feel quarantined from the outside world, I'm just not feeling the isolation either.

In several hours the United States is going to wake up to election day, but something has already changed. I can see it in the circles of people I interact with and it's on the faces of the international cadres out here. I was even approached by a government employee and lifelong Republican who confided in me that his vote went to Obama. This is no small indicator of which way the election will go. He explained that as someone who has worked all over the globe, it was the enthusiasm Obama brought to the rest of the world that won him over.

Because of the time difference, results won't come in until early next morning, but I'm going to rest easy tonight.

NOV. 5th

I step into the workplace still trying to shake this cold. I find that the world I normally inhabit has turned into a party. The day-to-day stress of being in Iraq and away from family and friends has somehow melted away and everyone is talking and enjoying themselves. An Egyptian lady brought a spread of food (Hummus, Ful, Pita etc.). People are huddled around making tea for each other. Co-workers are calling out "mabruk, mabruk". Indeed, congratulations are in order. Over the past 8 years America and the world's collective psyches have taken a giant kick to the head. But it feels good to be an American today, even in Iraq...especially in Iraq. Walking through the Chow Hall line the Ugandan guards say, "Zhambo sir, congratulations". There are beautiful smiles on their faces, which seems to convey a feeling of kinship with America. It feels good to be an American today.

LATER....

I have to take the latter half of the day off, the cough is too much and I'm exhausted from hacking most of the night. I spend 3 hours waiting in the clinic to get some cough syrup. I go to my room knowing I should sleep, but instead I immerse myself in all the post-election headlines, and watch McCain's concession speech and Obama's victory speech. Our internet connection is kind of slow, so youtube videos are painstaking to upload. Finally, after being satiated with internet media consumption, I get some much needed rest. I'm woken up a little after 1800 when my roommate comes in to get me for dinner. We hash out the election results for a while. He's an ex-Marine and also from Oregon, we have pretty much identical political viewpoints so the banter is mostly self congratulatory. Out of nowhere we are startled by what can only be described as a sledgehammer hitting the side of our wall, and seconds later all the clothes hanging in my roommate's wall locker crumble to the floor. We are in agreement that it's a mortar attack and it must have landed nearby. There is nowhere to take cover in case another one lands, we're already behind concrete walls. The feeling is one of vulnerability, followed by acceptance, followed by going to the chow hall and forgetting about it for the time being. But we are wrong, it isn't a mortar attack at all. People outside relate seeing a huge flash on the horizon followed by a deafening boom. It's not until the next day that we learn the truth: BAGHDAD (AP) - Police in Iraq say a
suicide bomber rammed his car into a police patrol today, killing six
people and wounding 12 others.

We found out that 200 lbs of explosives ripped through the Iraqi police patrol a mile away from us. Most likely a revenge attack against members of the Awakening who switched allegiance from the insurgency to help Coalition Forces.

I realize this is a commonplace headline back home, but I'm sure we all can recall a time when it wasn't all that common. I was in Haifa, Israel in 1995 and remember a magazine cover showing a suicide attack in Tel-Aviv. The carnage was indescribable. It was impossible to come to terms with another human being detonating himself to kill other people. At the time I remember struggling to accept that it happened 90 minutes from where I was living in Haifa. Something changed in America's psyche after 9/11, we have grown numb to this level of violence. This attack was surreal because of the proximity, and the timing of it was just wrong. It wasn't a day for hatred and violence anywhere.

It's not easy to reconcile the two events, Obama's victory and being in the radius of a suicide blast. The sectarian hatred in Iraq is so bad that it takes on a life of its own. This element of Iraqi society was little understood when Bush decided to invade in 2003. These tensions were held at bay under Saddam, but they also festered and the invasion exposed how deep the divisions really were.

I find hope in the fact that my colleagues come from many of the same ethnic and religious groups, but have found common cause as Americans. Obama's victory is sweet, it feels good to be an American today.